Toss
This final course of the school year is actually making me lose my mind.
Toss
I'm so gd anxious about it.
Toss
And I don't know how to fix it.
Snooze Penny
I'm cheering you on from far away, my lovely.
Toss
Thank you. 
ʙᴀɴɢʙᴏᴏ
what course is it? D:
Toss
It's an introductory course to scientific research, so we have to do a mini research project.
ʙᴀɴɢʙᴏᴏ
oh god I def understand your anxiety then I KNOW THAT DOESNT HELP LOL but I am with you in spirit
Toss
It's the actual worst.
Toss
I hate everything about it.
reineke
what are you doing your research on?
Toss
Traditional reading comprehension tests/exercises and how well they indicate a student's understanding of a text.
ʙᴀɴɢʙᴏᴏ
ohhh very cool though!
Toss
hhhh ty. One of the professors thought it sounded interesting too. Apparently not a lot of students do research about reading comprehension.
LeftInTheFade
That sounds like a fantastic idea. Reading comprehension really does need more attention.
reineke
that does sound super interesting! are you doing a quantitative or qualitative or a mixed approach for it?
Toss
I think it would probably count as mixed.
Toss
I don't think I can make an objective enough analysis for it to count as quantitative, honestly.
reineke
I guess you'd need to have a few exercises and then something to check the actual understanding and then maybe an interview with each student afterwards to discuss how they felt about each exercise?
Toss
I don't think I'll have the time for individual interviews honestly, but yeah something like that!
reineke
my BA thesis was on dyslexic people and their ability to read out loud, comparison between native English speakers and native German speakers
reineke
what I did was I had lists of words and nonwords (made-up words) that they had to read out loud and I'd go over the data later and see how many and what kind of mistakes they'd made
reineke
so I guess in your case you could do a few differently designed exercises and then do a comparison of which exercise was how successful?
Toss
I'm hoping that I'll specifically be able to use an old national test, because Swedish schools spend a ton of time practicing those kinds of tests, since it's the big ones the state uses to check how schools are doing in core subjects.
reineke
that's a great idea! here those tests are accessible online, is it like that in Sweden too?
Toss
There's weird rules about what you can and can't do even with ones that aren't used as the actual tests and ones that are no longer confidential, so idk if I'll be able to.
Toss
But yeah you can find practice tests and such online.
reineke
...also I'm sorry I've slipped into teaching assistant mode here accidentally, I've been trying to help other people on my course lately with their projects and it's like a reflex now
Toss
Hahaha it's all good!
Toss
It's frustrating because I'm genuinely interested in doing this and I think it'll be fascinating and I'm sure I can make it work even on such a small scale
Toss
but my head won't stop screaming at me lksajdsjf
reineke
I think as long as it's similar to the national test, the practice tests would work fine
Toss
Like EVERYTHING IS FINE can we please calm down.
Toss
Oh even the practice tests have weird rules from my understanding so it's ???
Toss
idek
Toss
But I think I should be able to.
reineke
I ended up having to do my research with just two people instead of a bigger group, because of COVID restrictions at the time, so I had to change my approach a little
reineke
but it became a more in-depth study that way, I'd say
Toss
I'm thinking 5 students tops.
reineke
and all in the same age bracket, I'd assume?
Toss
What I'd really really like to do and might do for the longer research project later, if there's time, is try how effective traditional reading comprehension exercises are at actually improving reading comprehension.
Toss
But there's no way of doing that in five weeks lmao.
Toss
Yeah they'd all be the same grade.
reineke
I mean, this could serve almost as a pilot study for that eventual research!
Toss
Yeah, something like that!
Toss
Got off my butt to do some yoga and I think that helped ahaha